Ortonville- Plans to replace the Ball Street Bridge in the village are moving forward again.
Village officials had to rebid the project after it was discovered last spring that design plans had the new bridge being built over an artisan well. The Michigan Department of Transportation, which funds construction, would not approve a design plan by Rowe Engineering and Geo-Tech Services in which the bridge was to be built on pylons 85 feet down through the artisan well.
Instead, a new design plan was drawn up and the project was rebid. The low bidder, said Village Manager John Lyons, is Trojan Development Company, which will construct the bridge at a cost of $534,133.64. Under a National Bridge Inspection System grant, the bridge was deemed critical and the village will have 95 percent of the construction costs federally funded. The village is responsible for the remaining 5 percent of construction costs and also for all of the design and construction engineering costs. Overall, Lyons said the village will pay about $100,000 for the new bridge.
The Ball Street Bridge is more than 50-years-old and was deemed in need of replacement in 2009 by the state.
Replacement of the bridge is now scheduled to begin around March 3 and the bridge will be closed intermittently for two months, reopening as a gravel surface on May 3 and is estimated to be completed by Nov. 14.